Mr D'Ippolito pulled on his dive gear and plunged into the water. "I couldn't believe my eyes down there, too, there were bodies everywhere, most of them of young men and women. I felt very sad but also very angry how could a tragedy like this be allowed to happen?"
One of the lucky 150 migrants to survive the sinking recounted how he left his native Eritrea a year ago.
The 18-year-old, who gave his name as David, travelled overland from the East African country into neighbouring Sudan and then to Libya, a dangerous journey for which he had to pay traffickers $3,000.
"It took us two months to cross the desert. We first travelled by foot, then in a truck. Many times I thought I would never make it. We travelled at night. During the day, when we weren't travelling, they tied us up."
Once he reached Libya he, like tens of thousands of sub-Saharan Africans hoping to reach Europe, had to work for months to scrape together the equivalent of 1,000 euros that people smugglers demand for the boat crossing.
"I worked for nearly a year to earn enough money for the crossing. I worked as a house painter and lived in a wooden shanty. The Libyans beat us all the time. They were like mafia they treated me like a slave."
His companion, who gave his name as Kijwa, said the Libyans were "bad people we got many beatings."
